January, 1999

Stepped-up federal enforcement puts squeeze on agricultural employers

by Lee Dean

The scramble to obtain an adequate supply of legal farm workers is only going to become more difficult, according to a series of speakers at the Michigan State Horticultural Society’s annual meeting in December.
New tools are available to help employers, but the long run outlook is dim, said presenters at the Grand Rapids meeting.
James Holt, senior economist for the Washington, D.C. law firm of McGuiness and Williams, said government efforts to keep illegal aliens out of the country are intensifying and beginning to work. He believes any understanding of the issue must begin with the fact that today’s ag work force is almost completely foreign-born and mostly illegal. In addition, new entrants to the country are almost entirely illegal.
“We’ve all been in denial on this,” said Holt. “The noose is beginning to tighten. There isn’t any way to legalize the vast majority of farm workers.”
Employers have no practical way of determine who is legal, but the government is attacking that problem on a number of fronts. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is the fastest growing agency of the federal government and has more armed agents than any other department. Border enforcement personnel will be tripled by 2002 and interior enforcement will double in intensity next year.
SWAT teams are beginning to target suspected industries through audits of I-9 forms and raids, he added.
“That’s a big reason we aren’t seeing the flow of labor into the U.S. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” said Holt. “The risk will increase as the new personnel come on and the SWAT team approach is one we’ll see more of.”
Government agencies are joining forces to cross-check the validity of worker documents. The closest partnership has been between INS and the Social Security Agency. The Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service are also involved.
Holt believes the enhanced SSA verification will have just as much impact on the situation as the INS activities. SSA is already verifying all electronic tax submissions, which are required when 250 or more names are reported. In 1998, it would reject submissions where 70% of the names did not match. That threshold will go down to 50% in 1999. Eventually, the threshold will get down to 10%. SSA also plans to check names on paper tax submissions as soon as possible. The IRS is beginning to issue fines for noncompliance.
As of Oct. 1, 1998, each state is required to implement new hire reporting for employers. The intent of the law is to identify people delinquent in child support and other violators. However, agriculture will be impacted as well because these new hire reports go to SSA for checking.
More trouble could come in the future from the results of three pilot mandatory document verification programs. The projects are to last four years and will be followed by a report to Congress in 2001. Congress is then slated to decide on which mandatory plan to implement.
“The problem is that these programs are working,” said Holt. “And the fact is, if mandatory worker documentation is in place, agriculture won’t have a work force.”
Of the options existing at the federal level for agricultural employers, the only one that holds any hope of working is reform of the H-2A foreign guest worker program, said Holt. A reform bill cleared Congress last fall but was left out of the final appropriations bill after opposition from the Clinton Administration.
Supporters of agricultural employers will try again in the new Congress, and will work on finding ways to achieve a non-partisan legislative remedy.
“This will take some time,” said Holt. “Even if a bill were passed this year there wouldn’t be a program on the ground until 2001 or 2002. We have to get from here to there and the only way to do it is H-2A.”
The H-2A program allows admission of aliens to the U.S. to do temporary or seasonal agricultural work. It has criticized for complexity and red tape, but is still becoming the best option for many ag employers. Common in the south and New York, H-2A had not been utilized in Michigan until this year, when Christmas tree growers used the program.
The situation in Michigan for the upcoming season will see very few regulatory changes, said Craig Anderson, director of Michigan Farm Bureau’s RCAP program. The labor supply will still be tight, as it was in 1998 when crop losses due to a labor shortage were documented. That had not taken place since the late 1960s.
One option for employers is to use the Michigan Talent Bank, an on-line worker recruitment tool. It can be reached on the Internet at www.michworks.org. For more information on how to use the website, call the Michigan Jobs Commission help line at 888-253-6855 or Cheryl Walker at 800-852-9868.
Interstate job orders are available, also through the Internet. This option can be accessed by Michigan employers by calling their local Michigan Jobs Commission or Michigan Employment Security Agency office.